Jun 29, 2012

I just took some photos of my 3 month old and the out-takes made me smile so much that I decided to share them first.

Sweet P didn't want me to get her picture with her sister. Instead, she preferred photo-bombing nearly every shot.

She also helped accessorize sister.

When she finally decided she wanted a turn (without her sister, by the way - no sharing the spotlight here) she accessorized herself and was quite pleased. Then I asked if I could take a picture without the headband and her mood quickly changed.

Jun 28, 2012

I am thankful for your sensitivity. You sometimes are hurt very easily but that sensitivity recognizes when others are hurt and it hurts you too. I am thankful you see others hurt and want to "fitz it" and I pray this never changes.

I am thankful for your energy. From the time you wake up in the morning, usually telling me you want to dance when I come in to get you out of bed, until night time comes when you need to be put back in that bed, you are constantly moving.

I am thankful for your curiosity. You want to learn and know everything. You hand me things and with a puzzled face, look at me asking, "this?" You want to be where I am, watching what I'm doing - always learning and remembering. You get this from your daddy and I hope you never lose your curiosity.

I'm thankful for your beauty. Your eyes melt me, your smile makes me smile and you are already so confident. I sometimes find myself staring at you in the backseat or while you're playing wondering how you could be so beautiful already and I know we'll be in trouble in a few short years.

I'm thankful for your affection. You want to be near me always and can't go ten minutes without touching me in some way. Whether it's sitting on my lap to have me read you a story, climbing on my back when I'm feeding your sister, or just giving me a hug without my asking, you like affection. I will always give it to you.

I'm thankful for your restrained confidence. You are very cautious when trying something new but once you master it, you are fearless. I'm thankful you look before leaping and boldly do what you know you can.

Most of all, I'm thankful God gave me you for a daughter. I'm thankful He trusted you in my care. I am supposed to teach you and help you grow but you teach me daily. You teach me to be free, to live in the moment, to crave knowledge, to care for others and recognize their hurt, to just go for it. I'm thankful for you and the wonderful gift you are.

Jun 27, 2012

Thank you to everyone that voted for my design in the minted challenge. Voting is over and the winners won't be notified for a few days. As you know, this was my first design competition so I'm thrilled at all the support you guys gave me.

Also, I'll been canning up a storm. I feel like a grandma. Picking vegetables from our garden and canning them but I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm kind of addicted. I'll have more to share on that later.

Oh, and I have been cracking up at some instagram comments about this lovely lady!!

There were over 2,700 designs submitted and the final round begins with 1,170!! I'm so very thankful to all of you that voted. My design is in some amazing company and I'm honored to have made it to the final round of voting!!! You guys made it possible! So thank you, thank you, thank you!

We still have some work to do. The final round of voting started today and will last three days. So, I need a huge favor again. Since it's a new round, the old votes don't carry over, and I'm asking all of you awesome readers to go back and vote again. This is the last time I'll need you to vote. After the three days of voting are up, the winners will be chosen.

So, let's make this happen! Click here to go directly to my design and cast your vote. Once you've voted, click through the other amazing designs and rate some of those too.

If you haven't voted yet, now's the time! To vote you'll need a minted account which takes seconds to create and you just need an email address. Then you can vote for as many designs as you want, just don't forget to vote for mine.

Jun 20, 2012

Just an fyi, there were so many entries for this challenge that their doing a 2-phase voting process. Right now it's in the first phase and only the top voted on designs will move on to the next phase.

If you went over and created an account (thank you, by the way) you probably got lost in the mix of all the other designs over there. If you couldn't find mine, here are the links again: washi card and the neon card.

Jun 17, 2012

For those of you who don't know, Minted holds monthly design challenges and voters rate the best designs in a highly competitive process. This month's challenge is Minted’s annual holiday card challenge!

This is typically their biggest design challenge with tons of designers submitting entries. I have submitted two designs and I would love it if you would click on the links below and vote for mine because the winning designs are produced and sold!

You can click on the graphics above to go vote, or click here or here. I think you have to register to vote. I'm not 100% certain so let me know if you can't just click the link and rate the designs. If you do have to register, you only need to provide a name and password and that's it. Once you register, you'll be taken to a random design to vote so it's way faster if you back here and click on the links to my designs to vote. If you do, I will love you forever!

Once you rate my two designs you can see and vote for tons of others too. Let me know what you think.

Thanks so much! Oh, and thanks to everyone that already went to "vote" the last time. Voting hadn't started yet but you can go now and it will count this time! Thanks! You guys rock!

Jun 12, 2012

Our garden has transitioned from a spring garden, full of onions, radishes and various lettuces, to a summer garden, full of squash, tomatoes and herbs. That also means our meals have also changed. Our squash plants are doing better this year than they ever have in the past so I've been making squash nearly every day.

Aside from fried zucchini, I have found a couple of new favorite recipes we'll be making again so I thought I'd share those with you.

First up, stuffed squash. My recipe is adapted from this one from Martha. We love onions in just about everything and this recipe seemed like they would go quite well so added those, replaced the oregano with fresh basil and I didn't have mozzarella so I topped it with feta. I like my version.